CFIDS May Topic- Sleeping zzzzzzzzz

What strategies do you use to help you to sleep at night. Here is my response to this months topic.
I love to sleep and used to be able to sleep so well, I miss it badly.
I had to sleep recently with my sister and she said that I went from asleep to awake instantly as if I wasn't really asleep at all. I do think that solving the sleep deprivation problem we all have would go a long way to making all our other symptoms much better.
apparently if you deliberately stop people going into a deep sleep after a few nights they will get all the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

I used to use valerian to help me to sleep and found it very effective although I do think it lost efficacy over time. Since I have started taking cymbalta my consultant has said that I can no longer use it.

I understand that Dr Jacob Teitlebaum has a combination sleep remedy which looks interesting and I would certainly try it if I wasn't taking cymbalta.

I have recently started taking clonazapam only a quarter at night but can't say if it helping or not as I don't think I have had a normal week for some time to make a proper judgement- I did try to up this to half a tablet but found that I could not get up until about 2pm from extreme fatigue which is not really getting much quality of life.

On a COPE pain management course we talked about good sleep hygeine which involved looking after your comfort- I have a really good mattress- a Dorlux Marquis king size which has a built in topper- and use lots of pilows including a body pillow. I decided against a Tempur mattress because I had heard that can make you a bit sweaty and I get hot enough at night.

I use a heat pad for pain releif and to keep me warm and a Chillow pillow in the summer if I am hot. I also use a Remedi pain releiving device for half to one hour while in bed it helps with pain releif and relaxation.

My bedtime routine is to go to bed between nine and ten in the evening and will probably watch some light television or play a game on my ipod like bejewelled and of course sorry to go on about it but if I am not sleeping or to wind down I will listen to a podcast or a talking book. My favourite at the moment is a free podcast by alistair McCall- Smith called Corduroy Mansions which I am sure is not meant to be so boring but it can send me off to sleep- I have not managed to get beyong chapter 12 yet!!

I also have a CD called peaceful sleep by Jan Sadler on my ipod as well as The Soul of Healing Meditations by Deepak Chopra and various free podcasts of relaxation and meditation.

So I seem to have an army of strategies but of course unfortunately still have many nights when I don't sleep beasue of pain and discomfort or wake up with bad dreams and pain. Some nights I just get up and abandon all attempts to sleep go and have a cup of tea watch a bit of TV on my own and go back to bed a few hours later.

The most annoying aspect is when you have slept but wake up feeling as if you haven't slept a wink. I have no answer for this but just take eaxh day as it comes and if it has to be a duvet day then so be it.

The most annoying aspect is

Dreaded DLA Form Part 3

Well it is finally done its in the post and whatever happens now happens. I know I have sent it off very late but I am hoping with all the supporting evidence I have sent it will be sucessful without them needing more evidence from my health professionals.

Have sent with it prescription form, letters from DH, consultants, ill health retirement letters, statement from myself as well as the 39 page form what more could they want?

I really have a mental block about doing this form and just put it off and put it off until it is like a weight hanging over me. I think it is becasue the outcome is so important if I lose it it means - no car, no disabled cab, no access to taxis when I can't drive but if that does happen then we will handle it. Should use CBT to not catastrophise about outcomes so must STOP worrying about it now.

It is such a lovely release that it is done phew

Counselling CBT It Helped Me

I have been lucky enough to have had six weeks of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on theNHS and then have had two years of counselling with the Wimbledon Guild at reduced cost.



At first I went to counselling because of on-going problems at work with a manager who had great difficulty dealing with someone with an invisible disability. I soon found that I had other problems wghen I realised that this new illness I had been newly diagnosed with was not going to go away, there was no cure and it seemed like a life sentence.



Going to counselling mean't not only was I able to deal with my problems at work, cry shout about the unfairness of it all but I was able to deal with the grief I felt about losing the person I was. That busy person who could do anything and probably more than one thing at a time.

Who was I, what was going to become of me when I had no job to define me? I was given extra sesssions when I found that I could not cope without the weekly sessions following a problem in the family just before last Christmas, I was not ready to do without my listening ear.



I was also able to explore problems from my childhood that I didn't realise I had, feelings of the strong need to be liked and overcaring for people then being surprised when they did not live up to my standards.



This was indeed a bonus of receiving counselling and I now feel like I truly know myself, what my needs are, my strengths and weaknesses. My reasons for behaving as I do and I feel a great peace within myself because I know myself. Whatever hapens to me I will be able to cope, I will manage, I will survive. If you get the oppurtunity to have counselling say yes please and take full advantage of it.

Deciding To Be Happy

I made a decision not too long ago really that if I can't be healthy I am going to be happy.
The first time I ever went to counselling for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy I was told that I did not do enough things during the day for fun.
. It was all work or family responsibliites so the first thing I had to do was think about ways of having fun. Every day now I think about what I am going to do for fun or happiness that day.
Of course that really depends on how I feel on any given day and plans are sometimes changed at the last minute but I like to have things to look forward to so I plan lunch with a friend, an early drink with my husband a holiday or outing.
If it happens that the day is one spent in bed then I watch a happy DVD have a facial, paint my nails anything to keep my mood up or using the trusty notebook plan future outings or speak to a friend or sister on the phone
. Its not easy to keep yourself "up" but the alternative is inconceivable my talk to myself is uplifting I hope yours is too so tell me:

What are going to do today for fun?